Beer Styles

What is India Pale Ale, and what does it have to do with India? The well-known story claims that brewers invented IPA so beer could survive the long sea voyage to India, with George Hodgson of Bow credited as the style's creator. That's not quite accurate. Beer had already been shipped to India from 1711 onward, and while Hodgson supplied the East India Company with a pale October beer, he did not invent a new style. The name India Pale Ale only appears in the early 19th century, and troops in India were still drinking porter well into the century's end.

What remains true: a pale, heavily hopped export beer found particular success in India. So when brewpubs in Bengaluru brew IPA today, it's something of a homecoming — even if the beers barely resemble their English ancestors anymore. Many instead take their cue from the American style, with citrus and tropical fruit notes.

The beer most people in the country drink is an international pale lager. It's golden, mildly hopped, cool, and crisp, with neither the bitterness of a German Pils nor the spice of a witbier. Kingfisher belongs to this category, alongside the stronger variant Kingfisher Strong.

Pale witbier is the second flagship style of the brewpubs. The name says it all: it's made with a high proportion of wheat malt and top-fermenting yeast, smells of banana and clove, and tastes soft. The brand Bira 91, founded in 2015, introduced many Indians to this style of beer for the first time with its wheat beer, White.

The difference between the three styles lies in fermentation and hops. The lager ferments cold and stays simple, the witbier ferments warm and smells of yeast, and the IPA ferments warm and smells of hops.